The NBC Studios in Burbank California is located at 3000 West Alameda Avenue in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, just a few miles northeast of the Hollywood area. It is one of three facilities owned by the network in America, the other studios are in New York City and Chicago, respectively.

Although the first phase of this project was completed in September 1952 and a few black-and-white programs were broadcast from there

for two and a half years, the facility was officially dedicated on March 27, 1955. It was known back then as NBC Color City, since a recently-completed studio at the complex is said to be the first TV studio equipped exclusively for color broadcasting.

A next full phase of the project was finished in November 1962, which accommodated the move of the network's Los Angeles station, on Channel 4, from Hollywood to Burbank. Channel 4 changed its call letters from KRCA to KNBC upon the move.

In fact, it was the first major color television studio in the country to be built from the ground up. Today, besides being home to NBC's west coast flagship station KNBC, it also houses the network's West Coast broadcast operations, its Los Angeles news bureau, as well as the Telemundo network's local owned & operated station, KVEA (Channel 52), and Spanish independent station KWHY (Channel 22).

The studios of Warner Bros. and The Walt Disney Company (includes rival network ABC) are located nearby in the same neighborhood.

This studio facility was responsible for producing some of the best remembered game and variety shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, including The Tonight Show from 1972, when Johnny Carson moved the show to California from New York, until 2009, when Jay Leno handed hosting duties to Conan O'Brien. The short-lived The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was filmed a few miles away at Universal Studios. However, when Leno returned as host of the The Tonight Show in 2010, The Tonight Show once again tapes from Burbank.

Move to Universal City

In mid-October 2007, the network announced that it intends to move most of its operations by 2011 from Burbank to a new complex across the street from Universal Studios in Universal City. It would retain an office presence at the current Burbank site, though most of the studio complex will be sold. The park and ride lot for the Metro Red Line Universal City Station currently occupies the future site of NBC West Coast.

In preparation for the move The Ellen DeGeneres Show moved nearby to the Warner Bros. Studios in 2008, and when Conan O'Brien took over hosting, The Tonight Show moved to an all-digital studio in the Universal Studios Backlot in 2009. The Jay Leno Show continued to broadcast from the NBC Burbank studios as Leno's Tonight Show had, though moving from Studio 3 to 11. Since March 1, 2010, the Tonight Show is taped at Studio 11 and will be until at least 2018.